Tag: Supreme Court

For more than 40 years, merchants have sought the right to impose surcharges on customers who use credit cards when making purchases. They prefer customers to pay with cash because when a customer pays with a credit card, the merchant must pay a transaction fee to the credit-card issuer. To encourage cash transactions, many merchants would like to express their pricing in a way that conveys to customers that credit purchases lead to higher prices, but a number of States closely regulate how merchants may express that viewpoint.

“It’s the only fast food chain I actually like.” That was Anthony Bourdain’s verdict on In-N-Out Burger. It is not an unusual opinion. Thanks to its clean halls, happy employees, and fresh produce, In-N-Out enjoys fanatical brand loyalty. Its new locations attract crowds and helicopters. Its drive-thru lines are measured from space. It is acclaimed far beyond its Southern California homeland.

In-N-Out is not just popular; it’s distinctive. Each location is a kind of motor oasis. The building is decked in neon lights, glossy tiles, and palm-tree listellos. The servers wear white uniforms and soda-jerk hats. The menu is little more than a hamburger, a cheeseburger, fries, and a milkshake. The look is classic. The feel is easy. The faithful are ecstatic. In-N-Out is a Norman Rockwell painting, The Endless Summer, and Saint Becket’s shrine rolled into one. Continue reading “In-N-Out Asks Supreme Court to Look at Labor Regulators’ Mistreatment of Commercial Speech”→

The October 10 Supreme Court oral argument in Nielsen v. Preap demonstrated that the justices continue to be sharply, ideologically divided over the federal government’s authority to detain criminal aliens pending completion of removal proceedings. But contrary to some early post-argument commentary, the oral argument left little doubt about the likely outcome: Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Thomas, Justice Alito, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh will vote to overturn the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s constricted interpretation of the government’s detention authority. While the Court may impose some time limits on the authority to detain criminal aliens who were released from prison many years before the initiation of removal proceedings, those five justices expressed no support for the sweeping limitations imposed by the Ninth Circuit. Continue reading “Supreme Court Poised to Overturn Ninth Circuit Ruling Granting Bond Hearings to Criminal Aliens”→

Featured Expert Contributor, False Claims Act

Ed. Note: This is Mr. Wood’s inaugural post as the WLF LegalPulse‘s latest Featured Expert Contributor. Mr. Wood is a Principal in Chuhak & Tecson’s Chicago, IL office and chairs the litigation practice group. He has authored numerous WLF publications over the past five years on the False Claims Act and other complex litigation matters.

A denial of certiorari has no precedential value; it simply means that the lower court decision stands. That said, the outcome may deter taxi organizations from other jurisdictions, as well as perhaps other businesses whose market share is threatened by “gig economy” entities, from filing similar antitrust suits. In addition, the Court let stand a decision that properly elevated protection of consumers over assisting competitors, a fundamental antitrust-law concept that is under attack by some politicians, legal activists, and antitrust academics. As the Third Circuit explained:

Appellants urge the application of antitrust laws for the express opposite purpose of antitrust laws: to compensate for their loss of profits due to increased competition from Uber. However, harm to Appellants’ business does not equal harm to competition.

One of the more interesting cases the Supreme Court will hear in the new term is Apple, Inc. v. Pepper. We’ve blogged previously about the case here. Superficially, the Court will decide whether iPhone users who buy apps from Apple’s App Store may sue Apple for alleged antitrust violations, or whether only app developers may bring such claims. But more fundamentally, resolution of the case hinges on the continued viability of Illinois Brick Co. v. Illinois, which holds that only the direct purchaser of a good or service may sue an allegedly abusive monopolist for damages.

By Holton Westbrook, a 2018 Judge K.K. Legett Fellow at Washington Legal Foundation who will be entering his third year at Texas Tech University School of Law in the fall.

New York City recently suffered the latest loss in municipalities’ legal fight against climate change when the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York threw out the city’s attempt to hold BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and other oil companies liable for injuries allegedly caused by carbon emissions. The Big Apple has signaled its intention to appeal its loss to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but the trial court’s reasoning is well within the mainstream of judicial thinking on the issues at stake, and its ruling should be upheld. Continue reading “Court Calls Second Strike on Municipalities’ Climate-Change Legal Crusade with Ruling Against New York City”→